House panel quickly approves spending bills

The House Appropriations Committee gave quick approval Wednesday to the first two of its 12 annual spending bills, including new funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs and the daily operations of the Capitol itself.

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Democrats grumbled that Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) was “flying blind” without a concrete set of allocations for the remaining 10 bills, which will also be needed to keep the government open after Sept. 30. But the two hour meeting was largely cordial and both sides seem invested in moving fast under the budget framework set last December.

“Regular order is the battle cry of the day,” said Rogers, who wants to mark up all dozen bills by the end of June and have them across the House floor before the August recess. He chose the easiest bills Wednesday, but in his haste, admitted he’s become a little like Gen. George Patton’s tanks—outrunning their supply lines in the race across Europe.

Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office won’t complete its scoring of President Barack Obama’s budget until next week, making it next to impossible to establish accurate allocations.

New York Rep. Nita Lowey, the ranking Democrat on the panel, scolded Rogers for proceeding on what amounted to “sham” numbers, she said. But neither she nor other Democrats insisted on a recorded vote.

“We will engage when the majority gets serious,” she said. “That is when the debate will be joined on our different values and priorities.”

That battle will surely come, much as Rogers and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) are fully committed to living with the outlines set last winter.

Under that format, non-emergency discretionary spending for fiscal 2015 will be capped at just under $1.014 trillion—very close to what was appropriated for the current fiscal year.

Of this, an estimated $492 billion will go to domestic and foreign aid programs while the remainder, roughly $521 billion, is dedicated to the Pentagon and defense-related spending.

These caps are tight enough that no one expects the wild disparities of recent years. But House Democrats are worried that the single largest domestic bill, covering the Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services, will again become the victim of Republican internal politics.

In fact, persons close to Rogers already anticipate that GOP conservatives will insist on an amendment to defund Obama’s signature healthcare reforms under the Affordable Care Act. That will drive off Democrats and push Rogers toward a more partisan approach that cuts even more and uses the savings to help make his other bills more attractive under the spending caps.

Not surprisingly then, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who is charged with managing the labor, education and health bill for her party, was most acerbic in lecturing the chairman.

“Assembling a budget is a serious responsibility. We should not be going at it piecemeal without a road map or without a compass,” she said. “I urge the majority to put all of the cards on the table. Show us their plan for labor, health, and education and all of the other fundamental priorities.”

“We’ll do so next week,” Rogers shot back.

The VA appropriations approved Wednesday were part of a larger $71.5 billion measure that also covers military construction projects. The Capitol funds fit into a second much smaller $3.3 billion bill for the legislative branch including money for lawmakers’ office operations and the Library of Congress.

No one challenged the large expenditures for veterans programs, but these also illustrate the difficult math that lies ahead under the caps.

When measured in real inflation-adjusted dollars, for example, the $492 billion for non-defense spending in 2015 rolls back the clock to fiscal 2007 in President George W. Bush’s second term.

But back then, discretionary funding for the VA represented about 9 percent of the non-defense budget. After years of steady growth it will be closer to 13 percent in 2015.

That means that Obama—however much committed to the VA— will have that much less for his other domestic priorities.

Among individual amendments debated Wednesday, two of the more notable came from Rep. James Moran (D-Va.).

In the first case, Moran sought to strike a legislative rider added to the military construction budget to bar the Defense Department from using any of the funds to renovate or expand military facilities so as to house prisoners who might be transferred in the future from the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo.

Republicans have strongly opposed such transfers and did so again Wednesday. But Moran argued that money could be saved and that the military has prisons in the U.S. that have adequate capacity.

“I really think the responsible thing is to leave it to the military to make a decision. Let it be on their backs,” he said, arguing the rider amounted to authorizing on an appropriations bill. But he lost 30-20 on a roll call vote.

The next fight was really not a fight at all, but more Moran’s attempt to raise the question of a housing allowance for lawmakers, whose pay would again be frozen for the sixth year under language in the legislative appropriations bill.

Moran is due to retire this year and would not benefit personally in any case. But he suggested that members—not representing districts in the immediate Washington, D.C., area —should get a $25 per day housing stipend for each day Congress is in session.

That would translate this year, for example, to about $2800, he estimated, or roughly what is being lost in the pay freeze.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who must manage the legislative bill, quipped that Moran’s proposal was easier offered by someone heading out the door than a new subcommittee chairman, like himself.

He praised Moran for raising the discussion –but the language was quickly dismissed on a voice vote.